ST. PAUL, Minn. – The University of Minnesota Morris softball team dropped a pair of contests to the University of Northwestern on Tuesday afternoon, losing 9-6 and 11-2 games to the Eagles. The Cougars fall to 13-24 (7-12 UMAC) on the season with the two defeats.

Still locked in a tie for fourth place in the UMAC standings, Minnesota Morris concludes the regular season on Saturday with a vital doubleheader with Northland College (9-19, 7-12 UMAC) in Ashland, Wis. beginning at 1 p.m.

Game 1: Northwestern 9, Minnesota Morris 6
Two big innings from the Northwestern offense proved to be the difference in the first game of the day. The Eagles opened with a four-run first and took the lead back from the Cougars with a four-run bottom of the fifth.

After Minnesota Morris left the bases loaded in the top of the first, Jadyn Iverson staked Northwestern to a 2-0 lead quickly in the bottom half with a RBI single. Later in the frame, Kate Beer doubled the lead with a two-run homer.

In the top of the second, Olivia Diver hit her second home run of the season to dead center for a solo shot that made it 4-1. Mary Landherr later added a RBI single to score Brenna Mahoney to slice the UNW lead in half.

Northwestern used a sac fly in the bottom of the second to increase its lead back to 5-2, but Sierra Stevens brought Minnesota Morris back within two with a solo home run to left in the top of the fourth inning. As the inning continued, Olivia Losee hit into a groundout that scored Landherr and brought the Cougars with a run at 5-4.

In the bottom of the fourth, Adrianna Johnson ran into trouble and was relieved by Autumn Theis with no outs and the bases loaded. On the first hitter she faced, Sydney Lane hit a soft liner over the top of the pitcher but a hustling Alice Wilkinson made a shoe-string grab for the out, then tossed it to first to get the runner who failed to tag. From there, the runner from third thought she had made it home safely, but the umpires gathered and determined that she had left early as well, with the resulting step on third from Tori Nichols finishing off the triple play. 

Carrying that momentum into the top of the fifth, Johnson led off with a double and was moved over on a single by Olivia Diver, who then stole second. Wilkinson followed with a single back up the middle to bring both runners home and give the Cougars their first lead of the day at 6-5. 

Unfortunately for Minnesota Morris, Northwestern had a response. Loading the bases with no outs, Lindsey Dvorak then cleared the bases with a double to put the Eagles back in front, 8-6. UNW plated another run later in the inning on a sacrifice fly to make it 9-6. After a 1-2-3 sixth inning for the Cougars, they would bring the tying run to the plate in the seventh before Northwestern closed it out.

Theis (1-6) was charged with the loss in the game. Morgan Wilhelm threw 2.0 innings of scoreless relief late in the game. Landherr and Olivia Diver each went 3-for-4 at the plate.

Game 2: Northwestern 11, Minnesota Morris 2 (6 innings)
The second game was close until the bottom of the sixth, when Northwestern put seven runs on the board, including the walk-off grand slam. 

The Eagles continued to use sacrifice flies effectively in the first inning, scoring a run on one from Megan Lundt and then adding another on a throwing error to take a 2-0 advantage.

Minnesota Morris came back to tie it with one run in both the second and third innings. The Cougars loaded the bases in the top of the second and scored on a single from Brenna Mahoney. Anna Baumann drove in Johnson in the top of the third to knot the score up at 2-2.

Northwestern regained the lead on a RBI single in the bottom of the fourth and then tacked on another in the bottom of the fifth when Allison Terry doubled, stole third, and then stole home.

The Cougars were unable to cut into the deficit in the top of the sixth and Northwestern then finished the game off with six straight hits to start the bottom of the inning. The decisive blow came from Dvorak with a grand slam that pushed the lead to nine runs and ended the contest an inning early.

Wilhelm took the loss to drop to 5-9 on the season. Baumann and Brenna Mahoney had two-hit games for the offense.